


Bad Hair Day

by Whistle_Mist



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Abusive John Winchester, Angst, Gen, Parental Jody Mills, Past Child Abuse, Sam Winchester Whump
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-13 06:34:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29522316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Whistle_Mist/pseuds/Whistle_Mist
Summary: When Jody got a call from a panicked Sam and when he showed up she found out a little more about why Sam's hair mattered so much to him.
Relationships: Jody Mills & Sam Winchester
Comments: 4
Kudos: 41
Collections: Sam Winchester Bingo





	Bad Hair Day

Jody almost broken down the bunker door when she had gotten a call from Sam. She couldn’t understand what was going on because he was in hysterics, but luckily, she had been in town so hightailing it to the bunker hadn't been anissue.

Banging the door open she went in gun out rushing down the stairs looking around for danger.

“Sam?! Dean?!” She yelled out. “Castiel?! Jack?!”

“Jody?” Jack came around the corner smiling even if he was confused. “Hello! I didn’t know you were coming over.”

“I got Sam’s call, he sounded like he was in trouble,” Looking around she couldn’t see anyone else there. “Is everyone alright?”

“Oh.”

“Oh? What ‘Oh?’” She frowned getting close seeing Jack’s face. “Jack, honey, what’s going on?”

“It’s Sam’s hair,” Jack winced. “It’s broken.”

“Broken? What- where is he?” Hoisting her gun Jody let the kid lead him down the halls towards the rooms. She looked around the place seeing nothing was in disarray. When they got close to a room she could hear talking. “Sam? Dean? Cas?”

They entered a room with Sam leaning over a tub, Dean over him looking like he was trying to drown his brother and Cas was just standing there watching them.

“Jody?” Dean stood up shaking the shampoo off his hands. “What are you doing here?”

“I got a call from Sam.” She walked over to see the tall man just hanging in the tub. “What’s going on here?”

“A witch potion got on Sam’s hair.” Castiel spoke waving. “It’s stuck in his hair and we can’t get it out.”

“I’m dying,” came the sorrowful groan from the tub. “Just drown me now and get it over with.”

“You are not dying, Sam!” Dean yelled frustrated. He looked at Jody. “I’m sorry if he called you. We’ve been trying to get it out of his hair since yesterday.”

Walking over Jody leaned down seeing whatever it had been caked into Sam’s hair. It looked like a mix of paste and bits of random herb stuff. She looked at the shampoo items, mayonnaise and other such things they had been using to try to get it out.

“Alright, you three go do some research, I’ll see if I can get some of this out.” Jody pulled the lumbering blond's upper body out of the tub. “Come on, sweetie let’s get to the kitchen.”

“I’m dying,”

“You’re not dying, honey, but I can’t carry you, come on up you go,” Jody helped him to his feet before leading him out of the room dragging him by his hand as Sam followed like a defeated puppy. “It’s alright, sweetie.”

\--

“This is the last of Sam’s hair stuff,” Jack laid the last of the products down on the counter. “I got everything.”

“Thanks, Jack,” Jody looked over all the stuff. She patted Sam’s back trying to comfort him as she slowly, painfully, picked away at the stuff all over his head. “You could open up your own mini shop.”

“Do you need me to get you anything else?” Jack asked. “I can go pick up some food too since it was Sam’s turn to cook. Or I can cook.”

“Don’t let him cook,” Sam whispered.

“Uh, you know what sounds good? Chinese food. Why do you go get us some?” Jody smiled. “And bring some Wontons.”

“Okay!” Happy with a task Jack headed out of the room. “Dean, I need money!”

She chuckled going back with a pick trying to separate more of the hair into small sections, slowly picking out the stubborn goop out of the long hair. Honestly when Sam had called, she thought someone was trying to kill him or someone died.

“You need a break?” After all, pulling at the hair for the last two hours she could see the scalp-tinged red. “Or do you want water or something?”

“No,”

“Oh, honey,” She rubbed his back more as he hunched into himself. “It’s going to be alright,”

“My life is over.” Sam groaned.

“Hey, I think we’re getting there. I got some of your bangs free,” Some being a small Strang that took forever and was painful. Even with the boy’s high pain tolerance she could feel when he felt the pull because he would tense up. “I think we’re getting there. Slowly,”

They stayed in silence, which was odd because Jody knew Sam. Giving the chance to talk about whatever he had learned since the last time they spoke or the last time she had seen him or when he’d call just to excitedly tell her about some new thing, he found in the bunker had always been a joy.

So, sue her, she would gladly take Mary Winchester place, shoot John and find a way to adopt all the boys as her own. Getting another small piece out of his hair she set it aside feeling odd with this oddly silent Sam.

“Tell me what you were working on last time we talked,” She said grabbing some more oil. "About that book, you found in the library,”

“Um, there was a book on Angels,” Sam looked up a little bit.

Happy when he started to talk Jody went back to work on trying to get his hair back to normal. Almost forty minutes later she had another section cleaned off, an inch but she started to notice the stuff was starting to harden slowly. Cursing in her mind she started to work on at least pushing the gunk down the strands of hair as fast as this stuff would allow.

Jody shooed the others out of the room when they returned with food wanting Sam to just keep going on with his discoveries wincing and gasping every few minutes with the painful pulls of his poor hair.

“Alright.” Jody put her hands on her hips looking at the hair. “I might need help on this one, I’m going to call a few places, see what they say. Meanwhile, let’s eat dinner alright?”

“Not hungry.”

“Listen to me young man, you are going to eat and I’m going to find a store around here somewhere that can help.” She tried to get him to stop up, but he stubbornly stayed seated. “Sam, you need to eat.”

“No.” He mumbled like a five-year-old. “Dean’s gonna make fun of me.”

“How about I call them while we eat and if Dean makes fun of you, I’ll use my mom voice? Come up you go,” This time he got up still frowning and pouting, head down like the world had crumbled around him. They got to the main room where the others were setting up the food, everyone but Cas was already eating. “Hey, thanks for getting dinner,”

“You’re welcome,” Smiling Jack took a bite of his food before pointing at one of the boxes. “I got you some veggies stir fry, Sam.”

“Thanks.” Sam sat down ignoring Dean and only glanced at him before getting his food. “Are there any veggie rolls?”

“Yeah, here,” Dean passed them he smirked. “I got some clippers, ready to be used. Just take a few seconds, get it over you matted lion.”

“Dean.” Jody used her mom voice looking up from her phone. There were some shops nearby she could go too. “Don’t or you won’t be getting any of the breakfast I’m making tomorrow.”

Looking shocked Dean gave a look to his brother before stuffing his mouth with one of the crab wontons trying hard not to say something that would keep him from eating Jody’s cooking the next day.

Calling a few places Jody talked to some people about products and what they did, doing her best to explain what was in his hair. Once dinner was over, she headed out to go buy them while Sam had gone off to his room to sulk.

It took a while, but Jody had managed to get some items from shops, the workers helping her figure out what would be best to get what they thought was gum out of his hair with both creams, oils, etc, and a few home remedies that she wrote down.

Getting back to the bunker she headed to Sam’s room opening the door seeing it dark. Reaching over she flipped on the light seeing Sam laying face down on the floor.

“Sam?”

“I can’t do it.”

“Do what?” Walking over she said the stuff down. “I got a few more things to try and help get that stuff out.”

“Will they work?” He asked with no hope.

“To be honest with you, I have no idea,” She sighed deeply reaching over to rub his back. She could see his eyes close noticing they were wet and puffy. She knew he was extremely attached to his hair, but she had no idea why this was so hard on him. “You want to talk about it?”

“You’ll think It’s dumb.”

“No, I won’t. Come on, Jody said softly. “Let’s just try. If it doesn’t work… well, I won’t let your brother shave your head okay? I’ll cut it and save as much hair as I can… I promise,”

Sitting up slowly Sam rubbed his face. “I hate this.”

“I know,”

“I only trim it,” Sam looked at her with eyes red hot, and sore. “My hair is… never mind,”

“Is what?” She reached over-drying his eyes gently using his shirt. “Tell me why, Sammy,”

Head shaking slightly Sam took a moment to look down. “It’s stupid… But it’s something I can control.”

She watched as his eyes look at her as a few more tears escaped. She pulled him into a hug careful of the hair. It was already heavy, and his head must have hurt from the weight of the gunk. Whatever it was clearly was something that hurt.

In silence as she worked through his hair with each bottle, each cream and all Jody could do was put them away and look at the poor red irritated scalp before knowing that saving all his hair wasn’t possible.

Getting up Jody went to get the clippers Dean had and he looked hopeful she’d cut the hair short, but she only took the hair cutting scissors. Heading back to the room she pulled the chair out from Sam’s desk before looking around.

“Got anything to put around your shoulders?”

“It’s alright,” Sam sat up more leaning back using her legs like armrests. “Get it over with.”

Nodding Jody carefully cut as close to gunk she could possibly get slowly making her away around his head. She urged him to talk to her or if he wanted to watch something on his phone, something, but she stopped cutting after a getting two thick matted parts off when she felt him shaking and soon, he was sobbing.

Stopping she hugged him tightly. “I got you, Sam. It’s going to be okay, shh, I’m right here.”

Sobbing with deep shaking breaths Sam's eyes blurred with tears, his body shook hard. Everything felt too cold as his lungs filled with icy needles and his skin felt like it was being stabbed with millions of small pricks.

The only comfort was Jody hugging him tightly whispering so gently that everything was going to be alright, that she wasn’t going to let him go and he leaned back into her trying to block out the memories of the past.

At some point, like anything when he was excited or upset or right now having a mental break down he started to babble. Sam thought of this as a bad habit he always had babbling about things, but Jody listened. She always listened, always there when they needed her. The reason he had called her out of pure panic over Mary.

Even if Mary was his mom, she just never felt like it. After meeting her Sam had felt guilt when he thought that it would have been better if she had stayed in heaven with her perfect version of her sons. Small selfish parts of him wished Jody were his mom.

\--

_Being alone in the motel room Sam was working on his homework. The only thing that was going on was the tv playing while he was filling out his math worksheet._

_On the table with one of the last bottles of water, and the nighttime looming over him, he was getting hungry. Getting up Sam made his way to the fridge opening it. A half packet of cold hotdogs laid inside, less than half of milk, and two bottles of water._

_Sighing he knew tomorrow he’d have to sneak food from the complimentary breakfast. Closing it he walked over to the counter picking up his last bag of Ramen Noodles. Opening it he peeked inside only to find the packet of seasoning was missing._

_Frowning he walked over to the stove turning it up. Setting the noodles down he grabbed the small pot they had filling it with some water and tossed in the noodles._

_As he stood there all along wondering when his Dad and Dean would come back Sam started to run his hands through his hair. They had been gone for a few days, Dean had managed to call in once, but other than that it had been dead silent._

_Still running his hands through his hair repeatedly tugging and pulling at it until the noodles came to a boil, he went to the fridge he looked in wondering if he should at one of the three hotdogs into the noodles. Tomorrow he had to wake up and sneak food before walking himself to school so there was a chance, he’d have food for the few couples of days if he kept getting up to get the free food._

_Grabbing one Sam bit into it chopping it up with his teeth and then tossing the bites into the noodles. Grabbing a bowl, he frowned remembering he had to wash it first. He forgot this morning when he ate the last of his cereal._

_Washing the bowl fast he poured his noodles into the bowl. Looking around he went to the small bag they kept there shuffling around the open packets finding one of salt. Ripping it open he poured it into his noodles knowing it was just his luck that he would eat the last one that didn’t come with a flavor packet… or veggies._

_Mixing it up Sam blew on it trying to cool it down so he could eat his dinner. Picking up his pencil he kept working on his homework, he heard noises from outside. Loud laughing from some people who were clearly drunk._

_Taking a bite as the sounds faded off Sam jumped hearing a loud thud against the wall. Looking over he could hear yelling. A couple? Yeah, that was a couple on the other side. Hearing the angry screams, he tried to block it out running his fingers through his hair self-comforting himself while trying to focus on the feeling and thinking of math, of being at school, getting food, and how he could go to the library until it closes, just anything that would keep him from hearing the fight next door._

_Once the math homework was done Sam shoved it into his backpack. Grabbing the bowl, he downed the now warm noodles eyes closed trying to get it all down as fast as he could._

_Leaving the empty bowl on the table Sam rushed to find the walkman Dean had left him. Grabbing it he put the headphones over his ears pushing the band to down to the back of his neck and blasted the music as loud as it could go not even caring if it were all songs Dean liked._

_Closing his eyes, he kept yanking at his hair trying to think of something to look forward to, but nothing came to mind. Instead, he just blasted the heavy metal music until his head hurt. Flipping the tape over and over until he got to the end of the second side again and didn’t hear the fighting bleeding through the earphones. Taking them off he blinked slowly hearing silence._

_Glancing over at the clock seeing it was almost one in the morning Sam reached over setting the alarm so he could get up at six am. Enough time to get more food and then hide it._

_Laying down Sam had a restless time falling asleep with his head throbbing and worry about sleeping in. Tossing and turning by the time Sam finally relaxed enough to sleep the alarm blared to life jolting the young boy awake. He stumbled to stand up swaying on his feet rubbing his tired face._

_Shaking his head Sam walked to the sink splash water on his face, throw on a sweater, an extra shirt, and grabbed a bag from the last time they had gone to the store stuffing it into the sew-in pocket in his jacket._

_Still tired, woozy from the lack of sleep Sam headed out of the room taking his key with him. Blinking at the cold morning air he walked his way to the lobby looking in to see people there, not too many, but Sam was glad to see the fresh food. Walking in he got his plate loading it up, bacon, eggs, muffins, and some biscuits. Going to sit down even though his stomach was still twisting from the bad night he forced some down a muffin while sneaking the rest to the side pocket and into the bag._

_Going to get seconds he took a few of the small boxes of cereal, a few juice boxes carefully making sure no one saw. When Sam saw the worker, change shifts with another worker Sam managed to sneak more food before he had no room to leave without looking suspicious._

_After returning to the room, he tied the plastic bag up stuffing it into the fridge. Closing it his stomach twisted something horrible. Even though he knew it was free, even if he knew he needed it the feeling of stealing anything left him sick._

_Dad said he had to grow out of it, but he felt so bad. Rubbing his stomach Sam turned to grab his backpack his hand going to his hair._

_Getting to the school, whatever it was called he skipped breakfast in favor to sleep at the cafeteria tables using his bag as a pillow. A lunch lady woke him up when the bell rang._

_By the time lunchtime came around Sam was half dead trying to stay awake. In the end, Sam knew he couldn't stay awake any time longer. At recess, Sam crawled into the tunnel laying down in the curve of it taking in how warm it was._

_Even with the loudness of the other kids screaming and play it was way better than hearing fights or sex or sketchy things happening in the rooms around him._

_Eyes slowly closing he told himself that once they called the schoolyard in, he would make his escape, backpack and all. At some point, he laid down sideways getting comfortable on his backpack._

_A loud whistle was heard calling in the kids to line up. Smiling Sam knew he just had to wait until he heard no noise and then he could go home and sleep._

_Instead, Sam jolted awake with it being dark outside and cold. Jumping up he looked around his chest-beating fast feeling like an idiot for falling asleep in the tunnel!_

_Scrambling out Sam shifted his backpack over his shoulder hand going to his right side of his head as it throbbed, and his heart was hammering. What if Dad and Dean had called and he didn’t answer? Dad would be pissed, and Dean would be upset. Rushing back to the hotel cold and shivering Sam just ran._

_Ran as fast as he could to the motel and with a small panic, he got the door open fearing that he was in trouble, that Dad somehow knew he hadn’t been there._

_Instead, he walked into an empty room, everything the same as when he left. Locking the door Sam walked over to the bed collapsing on it the stress sticking to him like glue._

_Closing his eyes, he just laid there thankful that tomorrow was the weekend. Sitting up he grabbed the pillow hiding his face in it. Reaching up he yanked at his hair hard trying to distract himself from thinking about his Dad. Maybe Dean had called? Maybe he lied to their dad about him not answering?_

_It was a small hope since Dean would be worried but hopefully, he could call soon or tomorrow morning to check-in and Sam could just say he was asleep, which, was the truth. Just that he wasn’t in the bed at the time._

_The next day Sam didn’t eat because he was pacing back and forth waiting for a phone call messing with his hair, twisting it, yanking, the hair was getting long, a few inches down the top of his shoulders, and he had been putting it up in a ponytail and pulling it out just to yank and pull until finally, the phone rang._

_It was Dean, and Sam lied saying he was in the motel asleep when he called. His heart stilled when Dean said they’d be gone for another week, but they’d be back in a few days to drop off food and pay for another couple of weeks at the motel._

_Great, he’d be stuck there._

_Going back to school was a blur. A long damn blur that melted like gray to his life. It barely hit him when his brother and Dad stopped by for what felt like ten minutes. He was so happy to see Dean hugging him and once again asking if he could go too._

_Instead, he was just told to keep going to school keep the salt lined up in the room, the loaded gun hidden, and to be wary of demons. When they left Sam nearly ripped his hair out._

_The school day was all fuzzy as Sam left after school heading over next door to the high school. He had found an easy way to get back to the motel faster by cutting through the high school grounds._

_Reaching up he tugged at his knotted hair knowing he should untangle it, but something just left him not wanting to try. Walking on the stopped seeing a poster on a wall. Looking at it for a long time seeing it was about a high school play, Hamlet, a book he had seen at the library and Sam had read some of it, but he wondered what the play would be like._

_“Tickets are free, little man,”_

_Jumping Sam turned around seeing someone adding a few more flyers on the wall. They were a teenager there, he was dressed genuinely nice, had from what, Sam could see, make-up on and he was taping the papers up._

_“It’s free?” Sam asked his voice cracking. It had been a while since he had talked to anyone outside his family. “Can I go?”_

_“Of course,” The guy handed him the flyer. “Here you go.”_

_“Thanks,” Taking it Sam noticed the nails were painted. “You paint your nails?”_

_“Yes, I do,”_

_“Oh. Um, is that okay?” Sam asked slowly looking confused. “And makeup?”_

_“Well, some people don’t think so, but I think it’s perfectly okay,” The guy smiled and looked over the kid. “You okay? You look like someone put you through the wringer.”_

_“Nah, I’m fine,” Sam said quickly hand going to his hair to start tugging at it looking at the flyer. “I’d like to go.”_

_“Well then we’ll see you next weekend,” The guy paused looking him over before reaching over to stop the kid from yanking on his tangled hair. “That has to hurt. What happened to your hair?”_

_“I haven’t done it. I can’t find the brush… and there’s none at the motel.”_

_“Hm, I think I have an extra brush back in drama class. Let me go get it so you can fix that mess of hair.”_

_He walked over sensing the kid following him, soon the kid was asking all about the play, who was in it, why was it called hamlet, did he read the book and if he did could he tell Sam about it._

_One thing led to another and next thing both knew they were on the bleachers of the high school with Sam happily chatter about how excited he was to see the play and to know there were more books by one William Shakespeare he was going to pick out at the library well, Terry, the name of the teenager, worked on detangling his hair._

_“Do you put on plays all the time? Are they all from the same writer? Do you get to change things or keep them the same? How come Hamlet’s cousin died? Why is there-”_

_“Easy there Sam, let’s try to get your hair fixed up alright?” Terry was going to get this mess of a main tamed and once it was done, he sighed putting it into a ponytail. “Phew, that took forever! Alright, your hair is safe.”_

_“Thanks!” Sam reached up tugging at it. “It feels better.”_

_“Okay, let’s not do that,” Terry stopped him before holding out the brush holding it out. “Look I’m going to give this to you. Instead of pull and yanking those locks around gently brush them out okay?”_

_“Why?”_

_“Alright, this feels nice?” Terry reached over yanking at a piece of the hair watching Sam wince and then used the brush to comb it gently. “Or is this better?”_

_"I like the brush, jeez,” Sam took the brush. “Thanks again, Terry, I gotta go but I’m gonna come see the play.”_

_“See you then, kid. Oh, and hurry home! It’s not safe out there!”_

_“Okay!”_

_And so, Sam went back to the motel feeling better than he had the last few weeks. Each time he heard fighting or screaming he would use the brush to run through his hair and soon each time was like a soothing motion. It felt good to run a brush through it and soon Sam was trying to part his hair, put it in a low ponytail or a braid._

_Sam was bad at braids, but he kept it untangled and even got curious about getting some more shampoos and conditions, cheap from the motel but the money Dad had let Sam had gotten some hair stuff, he asked the lady who worked there what kept hair nice and she had thought he was picking up something for his mom._

_Lying to her with a yes, he happily took stuff to terry who told him HOWto use the mousse and even talked to him about the different hair products out there and even gave Sam some of the ones that he had less than half of the bottles of._

_Sam liked Terry. He had been one of the only friends the young boy had and even if Terry was a teenager, he had bought Sam dinner after the play and even took him back to the motel, clearly concerned but Sam had told him that his Dad and Brother had gone to check out the new house' they were buying._

_Hiding them Sam had gotten his grades up, had been doing better in school and a friend. Okay, it was odd, Terry was in high school, but he was nice to Sam._

_Until one day Sam got itchy._

_Very itchy, scratching and feeling like something had been biting at his head for days. Nothing he did stopped it. Instead, it got worse until one day everyone was given a paper._

_Lice._

_Sam had lice and while everyone had a way to get rid of its Sam had no money left. So, when the call came in that night, he had to muster up his courage to tell his Dad he had lice and the school said he wasn’t allowed back until it was gone._

_Sam had hoped that Dad would show up, give him the money or have Dean take care of it. Instead, John had shown up to the motel looked pissed that he had to leave a hunt, or a lead, it made no sense. There wasn’t a moment that Sam could think of that would make his Dad leave a hunt._

_Something must have gone wrong because the second they walked in Sam could hear Dean trying to talk to their Dad, that he’d take care of it, that he should rest or go out drinking, anything._

_That’s when it hit Sam that their Dad was already drunk. Instead of having them go get the lice kit to clean out his hair john had yelled at Dean to shut up and sit down. The older boy looked nervous, tense and he was sporting a new shiner._

_Sam backed away when John came at him ad screamed when John grabbed him hard by the shoulder. Dean jumped up only to get backhanded so hard he fell to the floor too dizzy to get up._

_Kicking and screaming with his thing from the smell of the alcohol coming off his Dad, Sam tried to get away as the man half slurred, and half mumbled they were going to shave his head._

_Get rid of it all to save a few bucks and trouble all while cussing and blaming Sam for something he could control. A thick arm around his neck kept Sam from trying to escape as he sobbed, begged, and pleaded with his Dad not to cut his hair._

_It was his only source of comfort that didn’t involve hurting himself, but John didn’t listen. Never did, it was always his way, and no one was going to change that._

_So, there in a motel room, Sam was held down as his head was shaved while his brother was too young to pull the burly man off his brother and possibly had a concussion. They never found out if Dean had one because after being shaved, smacked around for crying and John’s act like a man speech the drunkard vengeance-seeking man took off in search of another drink while Dean held a sobbing Sam to soothe him because he himself could think of anything that would help._   
  
_Instead, Sam had to wait for a day or two until John took off on his own and Dean had to go hustle for money and Sam had headed over to the high school seeking comfort from his only friend who looked horrified when he found out what happened._

_Over the weekend they moved to a new Motel and Sam knew that Terry probably thought he was dead._

\--

Cutting the last piece off Jody listened to Sam's story having sworn to herself that she was going to somehow bring John back to life and shoot him in both kneecaps and brushed the now three-inch hair back, parting in down the middle, and hugged him.

“Stupid, huh? I’m thirty-two and crying over hair.” Sam gulped shaking his head. “My hair is the one thing I can keep constant in my life, even if I have to trim it sometimes, and this… this sucks.”

“No, no, you’re not stupid,” She laid just held him as she shifted to lay his head on her lap. “You were a little boy with no one to help you and left alone. You and your brother couldn't do anything to change that. I’m so sorry we had to cut your hair and I saved as much of it as I could,”

“Do you think… I’m weak for clinging to it like this?”

“Not at all.” She kissed the top of his head, heart-aching knowing that the boys must have been through so much more than that one motel experience. Hell, from what she knew it was countless and who knows what else happened?! “How about I stay a few extra days?”

“… Please?”

“Any time.” She ran her hand through the short hair feeling him relax and let him just calm down while thinking about his words before decided something. “You know what, I’m your boys' Mom now. And Mary can fight me on that.”

Sam smiled softly.


End file.
